The present invention relates to an auxiliary device of an automatic lathe, and more particularly to a material holding and guiding device of the automatic lathe.
In the conventional process of making a small component part, a specialized bolt or nut, etc., a long and rod-shaped blank material is sent into an automatic lathe in which the material is turned, drilled, and cut to a specified dimension and a specified pattern. Such process is capable of producing economically the component parts in quantity.
As shown in FIG. 1, an elongate rod 1 of blank material is held securely at one end thereof by an automatic lathe 2 and is supported at another end thereof by a material guiding frame 3. As soon as the machining of a work piece is completed, the chuck of the automatic lathe 2 holding the rod 1 is caused to release the rod 1. In the meantime, a rope 4 is activated to pull a pushing rod 5 so that the pushing rod 5 urges the rear end of the rod 1 to cause the front end of the rod 1 to advance, so as to complete the feeding process. However, when the anterior end of the elongate rod 1 is held and turned rapidly by the chuck of an automatic lathe 2 against the edge of a cutting or abrading tool, the middle part and the posterior part of the elongate rod 1 tend to sway, thereby causing the anterior end of the elongate rod 1 to sway slightly. As a result, the quality of the lathed article is greatly undermined. In order to remedy such situation, the elongate rod 1 can be so shortened as to mitigate the incident that the elongate rod 1 sways during the lathing process. However, such remedy often undermines the efficiency of the automatic lathe 2 because the frequency of the stoppage of the automatic lathe 2 for replenishing the elongate rod i is increased substantially.
In addition, the rope 4 of the guiding frame 3 is pulled by a weight or a spring so as to cause the pushing rod 5 to push the rod 1 to move forward. As the rod 1 is so pushed by the pushing rod 5 to reach the extreme front end, the rope 4 must be pulled manually to cause the pushing rod 5 to return to its original position at the extreme rear end so as to facilitate another rod to be pushed through. Such operational procedures as described above are rather inconvenient and inefficient.